MASS MEDIA – AUSTRALIA

News site losing millions but increasing in value

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Original article by John Rolfe
The Daily Telegraph – Page: Online : 2-Nov-21

The financial accounts of Industry Super Holdings shows that The New Daily lost $2.7m in 2020-21. The superannuation industry-backed news website has not booked a profit since it was founded nearly a decade ago, but its book value has been upgraded from zero to $4.4m following a review by an independent valuation expert. Liberal senator Andrew Bragg has questioned why super fund members are continuing to fund The New Daily, and reiterated his view that it is a "propaganda outfit" for union-linked super funds.

CORPORATES
THE NEW DAILY, INDUSTRY SUPER HOLDINGS PTY LTD, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

Seven West lobs new deal for Prime

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Original article by Sophie Elsworth
The Australian – Page: 15 : 2-Nov-21

Seven West Media is set to acquire regional broadcasting affiliate Prime Media in a $131.9m deal. The transaction will require approval from at least 50 per cent of Prime’s shareholders, and Seven West has indicated that investors who hold some 43.5 per cent of Prime’s shares have already expressed support for the deal. Seven West CEO James Warburton says the deal will extend the group’s audience reach and provide advertisers and media buyers with access to metropolitan and regional markets via a single platform. Seven’s previous bid for Prime in 2019 was blocked by key shareholders.

CORPORATES
SEVEN WEST MEDIA LIMITED – ASX SWM, PRIME MEDIA GROUP LIMITED – ASX PRT

ABC board left out on legal costs

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Original article by James Madden, Sophie Elsworth
The Australian – Page: 3 : 27-Oct-21

The ABC’s MD David Anderson has told a Senate estimates hearing that he made the decision to pay the legal costs of journalist Louise Milligan in a defamation case, and he did not consult the public broadcaster’s board. Anderson defended his actions by saying he had legal advice to the effect that the ABC could potentially have been held vicariously liable for Milligan’s social media posts regarding Liberal MP Andrew Laming; this could have resulted in legal costs for the ABC of up to $700,000. It is estimated that the ABC has incurred legal costs of about $184,000 arising from the case.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

ABC in cover-up claim over Louise Milligan’s tweets about MP Andrew Laming

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Original article by Janet Fife-Yeomans
The Daily Telegraph – Page: Online : 26-Oct-21

The ABC is under renewed scrutiny over Andrew Laming’s defamation payout after the public broadcaster declined to release 161 documents concerning the case. The documents in question involve internal discussions regarding the tweets of journalist Louise Milligan about the federal Liberal MP. The documents were requested via freedom of information laws, but the ABC released copies of the documents in which most of the text had been blacked out. One Nation MP Mark Latham has urged Communications Minister Paul Fletcher to release all documents relating to the Laming case.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, ONE NATION PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS

Their ABC: no so trusted anymore

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Original article by Evan Mulholland
The Spectator Australia – Page: Online : 22-Oct-21

The ABC has fallen from 10th to 19th place in Roy Morgan’s latest ranking of Australia’s most trusted brands. In a webinar discussing the results of the survey, Roy Morgan social scientist Dr Ross Honeywill comments that the ABC has now fallen from fifth place in just two years, while Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says that a lot more people seem to be of the view that the ABC is biased than was previously the case. Declines in its trust rating in Roy Morgan’s monthly net score rankings appear closely linked to media controversies of which the ABC was at the centre.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Foxtel expands offer in ViacomCBS deal

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Original article by Sophie Elsworth
The Australian – Page: 15 : 22-Oct-21

Pay-TV group Foxtel has secured a new multi-year content deal with US media company ViacomCBS, the parent company of the Ten Network. Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany says the deal to extend its long-standing relationship with ViacomCBS will provide customers with access to a much bigger range of content. The deal includes channels such as Nickelodeon and MTV, and the integration of the Paramount+ and 10 Play apps into Foxtel’s iQ3, iQ4 and iQ5 set-top boxes.

CORPORATES
FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, VIACOMCBS INCORPORATED, TEN NETWORK HOLDINGS LIMITED

‘ABC’s $150k legal costs move flawed’

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Original article by Sophie Elsworth
The Australian – Page: 3 : 19-Oct-21

Auditor-General Grant Hehir has found that there is no documented advice within the ABC to support the public broadcaster’s decision to pay the legal costs of journalist Louise Milligan in the Andrew Laming defamation case. The Liberal MP’s lawsuit ended up costing the ABC about $150,000 in total. Meanwhile, John McMillan and Jim Carroll have been appointed to head an independent review of the ABC’s in-house complaints unit, which has come under growing scrutiny in recent times. McMillan is a former federal and New South Wales ombudsman, and Carroll has previously worked for SBS and the Ten Network.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, AUSTRALIA. OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR-GENERAL, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, SPECIAL BROADCASTING SERVICE (SBS), TEN NETWORK HOLDINGS LIMITED

News Corp’s Andrew Bolt says his company’s climate campaign is rubbish

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Original article by Amanda Meade
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 13-Oct-21

News Corp Australia’s recently launched ‘Mission Zero’ editorial campaign on climate change has been criticised by one of the media group’s highest-profile commentators. Sky News presenter and newspaper columnist Andrew Bolt has decribed the campaign as ‘rubbish’ that asks readers to forget News Corp’s previous stance on reducing carbon emissions. Australian Conservation Foundation CEO Kelly O’Shanassy says Bolt has no credibility regarding climate change; O’Shanassy has welcomed News Corp decision to embrace the need for action on the issue.

CORPORATES
NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, AUSTRALIAN CONSERVATION FOUNDATION INCORPORATED

Social media’s self-policing plan laughable

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Original article by Paul Smith, Miranda Ward
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 21 & 23 : 12-Oct-21

Public interest groups have dismissed DIGI’s plans to establish an independent panel to oversee the voluntary code of conduct governing misinformation and disinformation that appears on the platforms of technology companies such as Facebook and Google. Dhakshayini Sooriyakumaran of Reset Australia says DIGI’s code is little more than a public relations stunt, and she contends that self-regulation of the sector does not work.

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DIGI, FACEBOOK AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, GOOGLE AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, RESET AUSTRALIA

ABC’s botched doco to cost jobs

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Original article by Sophie Elsworth
The Australian – Page: 19 : 4-Oct-21

The ABC recently withdrew a mini-series examining the 1975 disappearance of Sydney activist Juanita Nielsen from its streaming platform, after it was revealed that the mini-series may have aired false claims. It is believed that some people at the ABC may lose their jobs as a result, with the controversy regarding the Juanita Nielsen mini-series coming not long after an independent assessment into an ABC program into the 1979 Sydney Luna Park fire that killed seven people found it was misleading and had incorrectly implied a relationship between former NSW premier Neville Wran and underworld figure Abe Saffron.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION